Despite the portrayal of high tech prosthetic hands as the norm on the media, the current state of the art for prosthetic hands/arms for the average person leaves much to be desired. The most widely used terminal device is known as the “Hosmer™ Hook” and has been around since 1912. The basic Hosmer™ Hook has a single pair of opposable, crescent shaped pinchers. It is a voluntary-open terminal device having a series of elastic bands that keep the pinchers closed. It is body-powered, very reliable, predictable, waterproof, affordable and enables precise grasping of small objects with good visibility of the item being grasped. It is very robust and capable of manipulations with very small items. Unfortunately, it has several drawbacks. It is somewhat menacing to look at, is visually intimidating to third parties, has a limited ability to grasp irregularly shaped or large objects, does not lend itself to disguise with garment cover. While this device performs a single pinching task well, it is limited to manipulations from rigid, non-adjustable, fixed length pinchers rotating in a single plane. Also, this hook looks nothing like a human hand.
Other more sophisticated (e.g. robotic) hands are capable of performing with more dexterity but are also limited in many ways. These five-fingered robotic hands tend to feature complex electro-mechanical assemblies and as such tend to be expensive, fragile and require a silicone glove to be waterproof. They are non flexible, non customizable and frequently incorporate motors or other electrical systems within the hand itself resulting in a stiff monolithic palm which is not scalable and not lifelike. Performance of these hands is limited by battery life. Many of such prosthetic hands are not scalable or available in small sizes for children or women.
Henceforth, an aesthetically appealing, body-powered, five-fingered, prosthetic hand, would fulfill a long felt need in the prosthetic device industry. Similarly, a scalable prosthetic hand that replicated the springy load-bearing flexibility of a human hand would allow for a greater visual and emotional acceptance. This new invention utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration to overcome the aforementioned problems and accomplish this.